Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

From: Mark Pring <markpringnz@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Mantovani Anyone?
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 8:06 PM

The "tumbling" effect is purely musical, and is achieved in the strings by delaying the resolution of notes in a chord. It was born as follows: having formed his orchestra, Mantovani was looking for an identifiable sound he could use as a signature for his new orchestra. He turned to the accordionist of his old Tipica Orchestra, Ronald Binge, who had become a creative arranger over the years. Mantovani decided to commission from and develop with him a suitable style of sound. It was a terrible gamble, to be sure, which, if imperfectly handled, could have hurt the orchestra's chances at the outset; but Mantovani took the risk, confident that he would know instantly when played, whether the experiment had any merit. The result was "Charmaine". Mantovani immediately made it his signature melody and, later, when he recorded it, the disc sold over one million copies.. From then mantovani web site http://www.mantovan i-orchestra. com/mantovani_ early.html Mark --- On Sun, 9/28/08, Bruce Daily <pocotron@yahoo. com> wrote: From: Bruce Daily <pocotron@yahoo. com> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Mantovani Anyone? To: newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 6:24 PM Hi-    I now have to wonder who influenced Mantovani (other than the dollar sign)...    Maybe this story has a better beginning.   --- On Sat, 9/27/08, Mark Pring <markpringnz@ yahoo.com> wrote: From: Mark Pring <markpringnz@ yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Mantovani Anyone? To: newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008, 4:45 PM Being told that Mike Pinder was influenced by Mantovani ranks just behind Mike Dixon telling me that Sandy Denny sang out of tune, in a list  of things I wish I didn't know. I can no longer listen to Sandy Denny and I suspect the Moody Blues are about to suffer the same fate. Mark --- On Sun, 9/28/08, tomdcour <tomdcour@amnh. org> wrote: From: tomdcour <tomdcour@amnh. org> Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Mantovani Anyone? To: newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 9:13 AM Recently ,in an interview, Mike Pinder expressed that Mantovani had been an influence on his mellotron work. Vaguely remembering some haunting strains of "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" I went on Google to find out more. The first site I visited had a clip of the music that Nurse Ratchet played to calm down the patients in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". This put me in a bad frame of mind to be open to Mr. Mantovani. Indeed I started to suspect that he was responsible for the Musak I had to listen to in the 60's and 70's while my mom was shopping in the lingerie department. Bad associations! Then I began to read about some of his unique studio methods. "Cascading Strings"!! Listening back to the clip, I was no longer sure if I was hearing an orchestra drenched in a lot of reverb or the string section doing something weird. I am wondering if ,perhaps, he had a rank of violins playing the melody and another picking it up at a lower volume followed by yet another and another- simulating reverb. The effect, if you can bear to listen to it, is very interesting. Anyone know anything more about cascading strings or Mr. Mantovani?